Becoming a partner is easier than ever if your channel is eligible and monetization has not been disabled. We know that for many of you, creating videos is your passion and we do not want to see you lose your partnership status or account over something you thought was allowed or you thought was an innocent experiment.
We encourage all partners to be familiar with the YouTube Terms of Service agreement and YouTube Community Guidelines, and understand specific violations that could potentially impact your YouTube partnership status.
SPAM, DECEPTIVE PRACTICES, and SCAMS:
We are very serious about protecting our user experience: our Community Guidelines are very clear regarding spam and we believe spam in all its forms hurts that experience. A great user experience benefits everyone - user, content producers, partners and YouTube.
Metadata Spam
Our spam and phishing policies specifically describe ‘Misleading text’ here. Don’t create misleading descriptions, tags, titles or thumbnails in order to increase views. It's not okay to post large amounts of untargeted, unwanted or repetitive content, including comments and private messages.
If you use misleading metadata in your videos, your partnership may be terminated and your YouTube account may be shut down for violating our policies.
Thumbnail Gaming
We expect partners to respect our Community Guidelines and choose custom images for their thumbnails that most accurately represent their video content. “Thumbnail gaming” refers to the practice of abusing this privilege by choosing misleading thumbnails in order to trick users into watching videos.
If you are found in violation of misleading thumbnail you may receive warnings and/or strikes on your account. Repeated violations of these, or other Community Guidelines, may result in exclusion from the partnership program and possible termination of your YouTube account.
Third-Party "Subscription Services"
We’ve received inquiries about so-called “subscription services” that claim to increase subscribers and views while complying with the YouTube Terms of Service.
For most of these companies, those claims are false; the purchase or gaming of subscribers, views or any other channel features is a violation of our Terms of Service. If detected, the behavior could result in the suspension of your account.
RACY CONTENT
As our Community Guidelines state, YouTube is not for pornography or sexually explicit content. Our Safety Center contains more information. It’s not all about nudity and sex, but most nudity is not allowed, particularly if it is in a sexual context. Generally if a video is intended to be sexually provocative, it is less likely to be acceptable for YouTube. There are exceptions for some educational, documentary, scientific, and artistic content, but only if that is the sole purpose of the video and it is not gratuitously graphic. For example, a documentary on breast cancer would be appropriate, but posting clips out of context from the documentary might not be.
YouTube staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our Community Guidelines. When they do, we remove them. Accounts are penalized for Community Guidelines violations and serious or repeated violations can lead to account termination.
Age-restricted videos
Some videos don't violate our policies, but may not be appropriate for all audiences. We age-restrict these. In deciding whether to age restrict content we consider issues such as violence, disturbing imagery, nudity, sexually suggestive content, and portrayal of dangerous or illegal activities. When a video is age-restricted, a warning screen displays before the video plays. Only users 18 years of age or older can then proceed to view the material. In order to reduce the chances of users accidentally stumbling across these videos, they are not shown in certain sections of YouTube (e.g. honors pages like 'Most Viewed').
Appeal an age-restriction
Partners have the ability to appeal an age-restriction. If you are a partner and your video was age-restricted you can appeal it on your account Video Manager page by clicking on the “Appeals” link next to your age-restricted video. The YouTube team will review your request and take further action if appropriate. Please note that you may only appeal the age restriction on your video once.
ADSENSE POLICY VIOLATIONS
According to the AdSense program policies, clicking on your own ads for any reason is strictly prohibited in the following situations:
- Clicking out of interest in the ad content
- Clicking to see an ad's destination URL, possibly for filtering purposes
- Clicking to ensure that Google is properly reporting clicks on your ads
- Clicking to test your website
Lastly, we recommend that you read through these resources to learn more about invalid activity and AdSense terms and conditions that may have bearing on your account standing. We encourage you to be proactive in ensuring your compliance with these policies.
If AdSense finds that a partner is violating their policies and posing a risk to advertisers, they may disable the AdSense account. If your AdSense account is terminated, your YouTube partnership status will be terminated as well.
We understand that a third party may generate invalid activity on your ads without your knowledge or permission. Because this kind of activity doesn't reflect genuine user interest in the ads, we’re constantly improving our detection systems to identify these patterns and filter them as invalid. However, ultimately it is the publisher’s responsibility to ensure that the activity on his or her ads is valid. For this reason, we highly recommend that you review our tips for preventing invalid activity. You can also notify AdSense of suspected sabotage incidents.
ACCOUNT STRIKES
When we remove content for violating our policies, the user who posted it receives a strike. The type depends on the reason for the removal: copyright strikes are separate from Community Guidelines strikes.
In either case, you will be notified via email and via an alert that appears the next time you log in to YouTube.
You can learn more about account strikes and related consequences here. Note that both copyright and community guidelines strikes may expire after 6 months in some cases, and that you may have the option to appeal these strikes. Repeated accrual of either type of strike may lead to account termination, in which case your YouTube partnership may also be terminated.
HARASSMENT AND ABUSE
Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously. Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from YouTube.
Please read our Safety Center and stay safe on YouTube.
